


from now on our troubles will be out of sight

by MiaouMiaou



Category: Yogscast "High Rollers" D&D Campaign
Genre: Christmas, Found Family, Hockey, Ice Skating, Modern AU, One-Shots, Other, Snowball Fights, Theatre, Vampires, beach, fandom advent 2016, kid rollers au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-01
Updated: 2017-01-15
Packaged: 2018-09-03 11:29:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 25
Words: 15,603
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8710879
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MiaouMiaou/pseuds/MiaouMiaou
Summary: This is for fandom advent 2016! A series of high rollers one-shots following prompts for each day up until Christmas.





	1. Not Going Home for Christmas

**Author's Note:**

> So this is for fandom advent 2016, which I just heard about and thought it might be fun to do. [Here ](http://threeplusfire.tumblr.com/post/153457605411/fandom-advent-2016)is a link to the original post. I decided that I wanted to do High Rollers because it's a brand-new fandom this year and I love it a lot!

It was strange, Cam thought, to be on the road for Christmas. Or well, not really, he supposed. The Bucklands always had performances over the holiday, but being on the road with the Bucklands was being home. It was how he had grown up, travelling from city to city, but he had his family and his friends with him. He had Mirela and his parents and it was good. And well, the Bucklands knew how to through a party. After their performances, they’d go back to the caravan and they’d sing and dance and shout and drink. It was the best of times, and Cam sorely missed it.

Not that it would have been any fun without Mirela anyway. He knew he couldn’t be there, and considering the circumstances, he didn’t actually want to be. Keran would probably just try to kill him or something. Eitherr that or he would be disowned. He had no doubt that Keran would have told the Bucklands about what Cam supposedly had done. Cam was still confused about what really had happened that night, but Mirela had told him that it wasn’t his fault. At least knowing that, he didn’t have to feel bad about it. Not that it would make a difference, no one would take Cam’s word over Keran’s anyway. And no one else had been there, except for Mirela, and she was dead.

It didn’t really matter anyhow, since he was miles away from the Bucklands anyway. He wasn’t entirely sure where they were at the moment, but he was up North, farther than he had ever been before. At least his Christmas would be snowy. 

And it wasn’t all that bad anyway. He wasn’t alone, and he was actually with some of the best friends he had ever made. Which was still a strange thought, when he thought about it. But he liked Trellimar and Elora and Jiutou, and even all the people they had met throughout their journey. It was strange to think that if he hadn’t run off and ended up on that caravan headed towards Talis’Val, then he could possibly be with the Bucklands at the moment. If he had waited even just a day, none of this would have happened. None of it would have involved him. He would have never met Trell or Elora. He would have never met Jiutou and helped to bring her back to life. He would have never met the Shalana and Payla, or the champion of Talis’Val or the King of the Moon Spire. Even the people he would have never thought to make a difference in his life did. Barris, the stupid kid from Tallfield who was now a high-ranking guard. And Gurli, who he had to leave behind, despite the heartache it caused him. He would have never met Falk or Loben or Mina. Even Dimitriv, who had caused so much pain and death and distrust. 

Despite that he probably should, Cam didn’t regret any of it. Sure, the Bucklands were out having some big party tonight and Cam only had his companions and the memories of those he had met along the way. But they were good friends, and good memories. Or bad memories that he had grown from. Either way, it was good, here, in the Winter Spire surrounded by cold snow, and he was happy. 

So yes, it was strange to be somewhere he’d never been before for Christmas. It was strange to be without the Bucklands, but he wouldn’t change it. He was happy, truly happy. He couldn’t think of a better way to celebrate Christmas than this way, with drinks and laughter and being surrounded by his friends.


	2. In the snow

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Trellimar, Cam and Elora find a use for the snow up at the winter spire, and Nalistri joins in on the fun.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is basically set in the canon, but where the party stopped for Christmas in the Winter Spire. Basically a continuation of the first day of the advent!

Trellimar was used to the cold. The underdark was freezing at the best of times, and he had spent enough time traveling around and sleeping outside without warm enough coverings that he was used to it. 

Snow, however, he wasn’t quite used to. It didn’t snow very often in the South parts of Arrack, and it never snowed in the underdark. There wasn’t really any weather back home, so the snow had been an interesting experience to say the least. The blizzard had been horrid, honestly, but after that, he decided he didn’t really mind the snow at all. His boots kept his feet dry, so it was alright.

Jiutou seemed to hate the snow, and it was probably mostly due to the fact that her outfit was missing a sleeve and her shoes weren’t waterproof at all. Her robes and loose pants were not built for hiking through deep snow, that was sure.

Elora loved it, running around like a child and laughing playfully. Cam joined in with her, throwing snowballs across at Trell as they wandered around the winter spire. Trell didn’t want to join in with the shenanigans, but he couldn’t help lobbing a snowball square in the back of Cam’s head when the human wasn’t looking. Cam flipped him off and Trellimar chuckled, standing near the side of the building, pulling his starry cloak tighter around him to ward off the chilly breeze. 

Cam and Elora ran around like children, laughing and shouting. Jiutou, Trellimar knew, was sitting inside, shivering under blankets near a fire, and Granamyr was sitting with her. At least the snow was pretty, and the way it layered on the tall evergreens was breathtaking, and a sight that Trellimar could have never imagined.

It wasn’t until Elora used her druid-form to change into a polar bear when it got really fun, Cam making duplicates of himself to distract her as they chased each other. Nalistri, who had been standing next to Trell for a while, stepped in as well, using his magic to make a small wall out of snow, where he ducked behind before magically throwing dozens of snowballs at the other two, Cam’s duplicates disappearing as snowballs pelted each illusion.

“Hey! No fair! You’re both against me!” Cam shouted, and looked over towards Trell with a desperate look. The drow laughed, as it was far too serious of an expression for something as silly as a snowball fight. “Trell, c’mon, buddy! You and me? We can beat these two!”

“I’m not sure anyone can beat Mr. rides-an-ice-made-of-horse with a snowball fight, Buckland.”

“You’ve gotta back me up! They’re cheating!”

Trellimar scoffed and stepped away from the wall, bending down to scoop together a large snowball before lobbing it right at Elora’s polar bear nose, hitting her square between the eyes. She scooped up a giant pawful of snow and tossed it back into his face, and the surprise of it knocked him down. 

“Trell! This isn’t a real fight, you can’t fall!” Cam whined, and chucked his snowball at Trellimar instead of at Nalistri. Before Trellimar could retort, or even get up, he was covered in snow that had appeared out of nowhere above his head, burying him. 

“For fucks sake!” Trell yelped, really feeling the cold of the snow. His clothes were soaked with the freezing cold water and there was enough snow piled on top of him that he couldn’t stand up. “Okay, alright! You three win! Stop it and help me get out.” He laughed, pushing at the snow. The other three joined in with the laughter, and came over to save Trell, Elora shifting back to her normal form as she did so. 

Once Trellimar was unburied, and he was stood, brushing the snow off of his damp clothes, Cam yelped loudly. “Elora!” The human yelped, then swore loudly, pulling the back of his shirt up quickly to let the snow the Elora had shoved down it fall to the floor. Nalistri laughed quietly, and Trellimar rolled his eyes. “Okay, fine.” Cam exclaimed, rubbing his hands together. “That’s enough of the snow. I’m going to freeze out here!”

“Just be glad we didn’t shove snow down your trousers.” Trell snickered, moving back towards the spire. He was sure that Jiutou and Granamyr would probably like some company by now anyhow.

“You wouldn’t dare.” Cam snapped, and Trell shrugged with an expression that sent Cam running for the door, eager to get out of the snow and the three of his companions who clearly had something against him.


	3. Filming something

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ice skating AU - Cam is running into Trellimar's ice time, and asks the other man for a favor.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This whole ice skating AU stemmed from the idea made during an answer from Kim about what winter Olympics sport Jiutou would play (ice hockey) so I thought it would be fun to write a bit where the rest of the party were involved too. I just thought that Cam, Trell and Elora seemed a bit more like figure skaters, so here's this.

“Will you hurry up, Buckland? I need to use the ice.” Trellimar sighed and tapped the back of his skate impatiently on the ground. 

“Calm down, Trelli-belly.” Cam snapped, pivoting his hips quickly and stopping right in the center of the ice. “I’m going to get it right this time.” 

“That’s what you’ve been saying the last 10 times. And it’s my ice time now.”

“Elora ran into my time! It’s not my fault.” Cam whined, and then looked over at Trell. “Can you play the music? And start the camera?”

“I just don’t understand what you’re trying to get done.”

“I’m trying to get into a competition! I’m not sure what you and Elora are doing, but you both spend hours on the ice and never enter anything. So, if you’re not going to, then I’m going to enter. I have the Buckland family name to uphold!” 

Trellimar rolled his eyes and looked at the tripod that Cam had set up. “This isn’t going to record your entire routine if it’s just centered on the middle of the ice, y’know.”

“I know that. I’m not stupid. But it’s the best I could do!” Cam crossed his arms and glared over at Trell, sighing. Trellimar shook his head. Cam was clearly serious about this, he was dressed up and he had brought a good speaker rather than the crap one that he usually used. And the camera looked expensive. He wondered where the man had borrowed it from. 

“I’ll film you.” He finally said, and Cam grinned.

“Really?”

“If, and only if, you get off the ice as soon as you’re done.”

“I’ll do anything, Trell, I swear.”

Trell chuckled and shook his head. “You shouldn’t say that. But get ready. We’ll film this quickly and then you’ve got to go.”

“Oh man, Trell, I owe you one! Thank you!”

“Just shut up and skate.” He said, turning on the camera and the music so that Cam couldn’t refuse or start talking on a different tangent. And skate Cam did, his skates gliding flawlessly across the ice as he spun and leapt. Even when Trellimar was sure that the man was going to fall, he landed his triple lutz, and moved straight onto his step sequence a moment later. Cam landed his last jump, a double axel, and lead immediately into a Biellman spin as the music faded out. When it was gone completely, Cam had released his foot and let his leg move back down to the ice, stopping quickly and posing. He flashed a cheeky smile at Trellimar before he slumped down, exhausted. Trell stopped the camera. 

“Wow, I think that’s the first time you’ve done that well, Buckland.” Trell teased, and Cam skated off the ice, shaking his head. “I’m serious, that was good. Much better than I can do.”

“You just have to practice with your jumps is all.” Cam shrugged, still catching his breath. “Your footwork is some of the best I’ve ever seen. You just fall all the time.”

“Hm.” Trellimar shrugged, setting the camera down and patting Cam’s shoulder as he walked by, pulling off his blade guards before he stepped onto the ice. “I don’t always fall.” He said, and Cam laughed, sitting down and unlacing his skates as he watched Trellimar do a warm up lap and then pivot and skate around backward, practicing his crossovers. 

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen you land any jump perfectly.” Cam teased, and Trell flipped him off as he skated into a double toe loop. His rotations were good, but he fumbled the landing, and fell onto the ice, sliding across it for a moment, groaning. “Don’t get cocky, Trell.” Cam laughed, standing once more and moving towards the wall of the rink. 

“Shut up, Buckland. Go on and let me practice so I can get something good in before Jiutou’s hockey team shows up and kicks me out.”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever.” Cam laughed as he collected his things. “Just know that you’re lucky that I didn’t catch that bit on camera.”

“Fuck off, Buckland.” Trell rolled his eyes as he skated off, flipping Cam off as he went.


	4. Law Enforcement

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Modern AU. Jiutou has bad memories associated with the police.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is mostly based off of the modern AU stuff by iznj! I have a whole story planned in this AU, but I thought it fit the prompt pretty well.

Jiutou wasn’t a fan of the police. They hadn’t really done anything to her, but whenever she saw them, she remembered that horrid day when the police had come to her house. She had called them, the phone left on under the bed as she laid as still and as silently as she possibly could. She had only been a child then, when her home had been robbed and her parents killed, and the police came to get her after the robbers had left.

They never caught the murderer, and Jiutou was tossed carelessly into the foster system, doomed to circle through house after house because no one really wanted her.   
She had run away when she was 14, deciding that it wasn’t for her, and instead she found a place to stay at a monastery, where she studied religion and was cared for. She spent her free time avoiding law enforcement on the streets, knowing that she was a run-away and that they would be looking for her. They would try to send her back to the last foster home she had been in, which was a terrible family who did nothing but insult her and force her to do all the work around the house. It was stupid, and no one had done anything about it. So, she kept her head low as she walked around town, and she spent a lot of time at a small martial arts studio, where the owner gave her lessons in return for help cleaning up after hours. Jiutou didn’t mind all that much.

When she was 16, Jiutou had gotten emancipated, and she managed to get some cash together to get a small, third story apartment in the crappy part of town.

She moved in on a cold December night, snow gathering on the ground and reflecting the blue and red light of a police car’s sirens. She froze, holding her meager belongings, as she saw the police. They must have been there for her, because why else would they be there? She felt her stomach tighten and she averted her gaze, focusing on the snow and her feet and tried to sneak by to get to her new home on the third floor. She didn’t want anything to do with the police. 

She made it up to the second-floor landing before the lights turned off and the cars left. Jiutou had no idea what they had been there for, but as the cars drove off into the distance, she found herself no longer able to support herself on her legs. Her boxes fell to the ground noisily and she fell down as well, tears running down her cheeks as she sobbed. 

“Uh,” A voice said softly, and Jiutou looked up quickly to see a young woman with lilac hair walking up the stairs with a few bags in her hands, looking concerned. “Are you alright?”

“I’m fine.” Jiutou quickly wiped her tears away with the sleeves of her hoodie. “I just dropped my things.”

“Oh, alright. Here, let me give you a hand!” The woman smiled and lifted one of the boxes as Jiutou rose to her feet. “Are you moving in?”

“Yeah.” Jiutou sniffled and gathered together the rest of her things. “On the third floor.”

“Oh! You live across from me then. Nice to meet you, by the way. I’m Elora.” The woman smiled and made sure that Jiutou had a handle on all of her things, before the two of them headed up the last flight of stairs together.


	5. Live Music

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cam's friends take him out the a tavern, and then to the opera.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't know. I'm sorry.
> 
> Yes, they do dance drunkenly to Halfling Camp.

Despite the fact that Cam was a performer, he tended not to go to other performances very often. At least not small events like this. But his friend Elora had dragged him along, and he was going to say no, except that her (somewhat scary) friend, Jiutou, had been there when Elora had asked him.

The death stare that Jiutou had given him had made him agree to go to the silly open stage night in a local tavern and listen to the various mess of people preform a various mess of songs and acts. There were some good things, of course, and it helped that Elora had also brought some of her other friends, Mina, Shalana and Payla. Cam was quite keen to Shalana, so that made it much better. And there was ale, so he drank plenty of that too, and got fairly wasted. Enough so that when a band of halflings got up onto stage and started playing the fiddle, accordion and lute, he found himself dancing and skipping and shouting alongside his companions. Payla, Mira and Cam were all very drunk, so they were the loudest of the group, linking arms and skipping around the table, singing along with the band, clapping along with the band.

They had quite a bit of fun after that, although that was mostly due to the booze, but Cam did find himself enjoying the show and the time with his friends (though Payla had yelled at him when he tried to complement Shalana, but he was too drunk to care, honestly).

When the tavern had emptied out, the group of friends left as well, stumbling down the street drunk, laughing the entire way back.

* * *

 

The next time that Elora asked Cam to go out to a show, Cam didn’t need Jiutou to scare him into going. He agreed easily, expecting for another night at the tavern drinking and dancing and shouting.

But when they didn’t walk to the tavern, and instead they got a cart across the city, Cam was confused. Not to mention that everyone else was quite dressed up as well, nothing that anyone sensible would wear to the pub. So, when they stopped at the theatre, Cam was confused. He had performed here before, but he wasn’t expecting to be going to a real show. “Elora,” Cam asked carefully, frowning. “I thought we were going out for drinks.”

“No!” Elora laughed, and Payla snorted. “I said we were going to a play.”

“I don’t think I caught that, no.”

“Shut up Cam, you’ll like it.” Mina said, rolling her eyes. Cam huffed but got out of the cart, knowing that he _would_ enjoy it, but a little annoyed that he had been tricked. They headed inside and got their seats and settled in for the show, which was some operetta about something that Cam hadn’t paid enough attention to. The theatre troop was mediocre, so he wasn’t entirely thrilled, knowing that the Bucklands would have done a better job.

Or at least that was what he thought until the male lead stepped onto the stage, and his voice made the entire show worth the trip. The actor was a tall drow, and Cam was a bit surprised because it wasn’t every day that you saw a drow in Talis’Val, but here he was. And he was incredible. The opera ended up being fantastic and Elora teased him for having been so taken up by it, but Cam didn’t mind.

When the show was over, Cam wanted to go meet the cast, or namely, he wanted to meet Trellimar Aleath, as the program quoted the man as, and beg him to join the Buckland troop of performers. Anyone with a stage presence like that deserved to be doing better things than acting in mediocre shows with an ill-practiced pit. But Elora and Jiutou tugged him along and took him home.

“See, that wasn’t that bad.” Elora teased on the cart home.

“It’s still not what you expect when you go out to see ‘live music’”

“I thought you would like it!”

“I sure liked it.” Mina hummed. “The lead was really good. And handsome, eh, Cam?”

“Shut up. He was good, yeah, but the Bucklands could do better. Let’s just go to the tavern next time, yeah?” Cam sighed and his friends just laughed and continued on with their nonsense chatter.

Of course, Cam fully intended to go back to the show a few days later. He did, after all, want to meet this Trellimar fellow. He seemed interesting, to say the least.


	6. Fast Cars

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jiutou likes driving fast, and then she finds some others who like to too.

There was something about the thrill of driving fast that really riled Jiutou up. She loved the feel of her hair blowing behind her when she had the roof of the car down and as she sped 100 mph down the road in the middle of the night. It was exhilarating, the way her stomach dropped as she accelerated far beyond the speed limit. But it was dark, and no one was on these back roads in the middle of the night. 

Or at least there wasn’t usually. Jiutou had made a habit of coming out usually once a week, Sunday night, to speed down the road and get her fill of the speed, but she had had a stressful day, so she had come out on a Tuesday as well, jittery and ready to drive. But unlike usual, there were other cars parked on the side of the street, three figures silhouetted by the headlights of one of the cars. They didn’t look like cops, not really, and Jiutou tended to chase danger, so she pulled up next to them. 

“Hey, is something wrong?” She asked, looking at the three, very nice cars. Now that she was closer, she could see the figures more clearly. Two tall, fairly good-looking men stood, leaned against the hood of one of the cars, and across from them was a young woman, her long hair pulled back into a ponytail. 

“No.” One of the men said, lifting his arm off of the other man’s shoulder and looking Jiutou’s car down. “Just taking some time to chat.”

“On a dark road in the middle of the night?”

“Sometimes you meet where you have to meet. You’re one to talk, you’re driving down a dark road in the middle of the night too.”

“Fair enough.” Jiutou scoffed. “Though I had a reason.”

“So do we.” The other man said, his voice deep and smooth. He patted the hood of the car they were leaning up on, a very nice model with a gorgeous purple finish. “We like cars, and we like to talk about them.”

“Well, I like cars too, but I’m more of a fan of driving them.” Jiutou snapped, and the woman chuckled. 

“She’s not a cop or anything, guys.” The woman said. “She’s just here to drive. Just like us.”

“Oh.” The first man looked her over, and then the car. “Yeah, I guess I see that. I’m Cam, by the way.”

“Pleasure.” Jiutou deadpanned. “I’m Jiutou.” The other two introduced themselves as well, the man, Trellimar, and the woman, Elora. Trellimar also introduced his car, which he had named Granamyr. Cam laughed at the name, but admitted that he had named his car as well. Cam’s car almost glowed with the light from Jiutou’s headlights shining on it, and Cam proudly dubbed it Duracell, a smug smile on his face.

“And just so we are all aware, Duracell is the most powerful and the fastest car here.” Cam announced, and Trellimar only scoffed. 

“Well, this is Crown Rend, and I’m fairly certain that he can beat all three of your cars.” Jiutou declared, and all three of the others frowned, but seemed up to the challenge. 

“We’ll see about that.” Elora said as she slid into the driver’s seat of her car, a beauty with a bronze-colored finish. 

The four of them lined up and then got ready to race, Cam flipping them all of as Jiutou counted down.

The four sped off into the night with a screech of tires and the roar of the engines as they disappeared into the darkness.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I thought it would be clever to have their cars match some canon things. So Trell has Granamyr, Cam has Duracell, Jiutou has Crownrend, and Elora has her bronze griffon. They really should name the griffon because I couldn't give it a cool name. 
> 
> Also, it's up to you as to who won (but it probably wasn't Trell, lets be honest)


	7. First Christmas Together

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's Christmas, and everyone forgot.

“Good morning!” Cam’s voice was the first thing the party heard when they woke up that morning, seeming far too cheerful considering that they had just fought a huge battle the day before and hadn’t really gotten that much sleep. “Happy Christmas!”

“Is it really?” Trell mumbled, rolling over and groaning. 

“Yes! We are going to let it be happy for as long as possible because I am tired of all this shit that we go through all the time.”

“No, I meant is it really Christmas already? And don’t you start, most of that shit is thanks to you.”

Cam looked at Trell for a moment before deciding it wasn’t really worth it, and looking over to the girls. “Come on! It’s Christmas!”

“And?” Jiutou deadpanned, stretching and pulling on the top layer of her robes, which were set aside for the night.

“Come on you guys! Can’t you be excited?” Cam exclaimed, a huge grin on his face. “Christmas!”

“You’re like a toddler, I swear.” Jiutou muttered, pushing her guandao to the side and rolling up her bedroll. “What is there to be excited about?”

“Don’t be like that. Christmas is about being cheerful!” Since Trell and Jiutou seemed to be opposing Cam’s idea of a happy Christmas, he looked over towards Elora for help. The elven woman chuckled and shook her head. 

“Christmas is exciting, but I feel like it’s kind of about family, you know? And it’s just…” She shrugged, knowing that it wasn’t much like her to be a downer, but she did miss her parents and the rest of her spire. She knew that what she was doing was important, of course, but she didn’t really feel like Christmas.

“Well, yeah, Christmas can be about family. But sometimes you can’t be with your family for whatever reason. So instead, you spend it with friends.” Cam sighed, and then gestured at the three of his companions. “That’s what I wanted to do! I wanted to spend Christmas with my best friends, but all three of you are acting all blehh.”

“Sorry Cam, I’m just not sure- and it’s really early. We need to get a move on the road too, you know, since we can’t let either the Broken Sky or the Burning King catch up with us.” Elora frowned, and Cam pouted, swallowing hard. He elected to look away from his friends instead of showing them that he was upset, tears starting to form in his eyes. 

“Maybe we can wait just a while, Miss Elora.” Jiutou said softly, feeling a bit bad. “I’m not one for these holidays, but it could be… fun.” 

Cam raised an eyebrow and gave the tiefling a funny look. “I’m sure we can put together something.” Trellimar added in, scratching Granamyr behind his head. “Food and gifts, right?” He looked around the small room in the inn that they had managed to get, despite there being just one bed. There wasn’t a kitchen or anything of the sort, or even any decorations at all. It was just a bare, lonely room in an inn, looking like the dozens of other inns and taverns they had stayed in before. The inn was bound to be busy as well, since they had barely managed to get this one room. “I’m sure we can do it.”

“Really?”

“Sure.” Trell said, and then looked to Elora, who nodded, looking curious. 

“I’ll go find something for food.” Jiutou announced, standing and headed out of the room and down the hall to the kitchen. 

Elora looked around the room and frowned. “I suppose we could make it look nicer in here. Maybe a bit more Christmas-y.” She took in a deep breath and focused as she sprouted magical plants from seemingly nowhere, long strings of garlands and beautiful red poinsettias. She hung them around the room with help from the boys, and they all began to smile as the room began to feel much more welcoming. 

They opened the shutters to let some natural light in and all looked out to see snow gently drifting to the ground, like they were in a snow globe. It was beautiful. “White Christmas.” Cam offered, then started to hum a jolly tune, happy. 

Jiutou returned with food from the inn, and she set it on the small table that they had moved from being pushed up against the wall and to the middle of the room instead. “It’s nothing special, but it’s what they had.” She said. When Cam didn’t respond, she looked at the human man, confused, then realized that he was crying. “I do not understand.” She said, frowning. “I thought this would make you happy.”

“It does.” Cam sniffled, wiping his face on his sleeve, but tears kept streaming down his face. “It makes me very happy. You all did this all for me.”

“Well, it is Christmas.” Trell said with a smile, and Elora nodded gleefully in agreement. 

“Happy Christmas, Cam.” Jiutou said, patting the human on the shoulder.

“Happy Christmas.”


	8. At the Beach

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The party heads to the beach, and shenanigans ensue.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just fair warning, this is the first somewhat shippy thing I've ever written so bear with me. TrelliCam, but like I said, I suck with shippy and romance-y things. 
> 
> Set in the same modern AU as the earlier chapter, inspired by inzj.

Since it was the middle of summer, Elora had suggested that they take a trip to the beach. Mina had a car, so they wouldn’t have to worry about transportation. Torwyn, though she couldn’t go along, had offered them up her parent’s vacation home, which was just a small house close to the beach, but it meant that they wouldn’t need to get a hotel or rent anywhere out. Cam was ecstatic. He never quite seemed to shut up about the trip since Elora suggested it, and continually pestered Jiutou about it. He wasn’t as annoying about the trip to Trellimar, but Cam did seem to be excited that the other man was going.

They planned the trip for mid-July, when the heat was sweltering and it was almost painful for Jiutou and Elora to live in their third story apartments. The group of friends ended up spending much more time at Trellimar’s home simply than anywhere else, simply because it was on the ground level and was therefore the coolest. That, and everyone seemed to enjoy the hijinks of Granamyr, Trell’s small cat who was rather keen on collecting small items that were dropped. It was always amusing to stumble upon one of these collections, and it didn’t help that Trellimar was not the most organized of people. The most recent find was the stash of spoons under the couch, found by Elora, who had just raised an eyebrow and tossed the pile into the sink, trying not to feel pressured by Granamyr’s gaze to put them back.

It was in Trellimar’s apartment where the group actually met up before they left. All four of them had their bags packed, and Granamyr was whining from inside his carrier, his pathetic yowls filling the room as the four humans laid on the couches, sweating and waiting for Mina to show up, hoping that her car had air conditioning.

When the woman showed up, they all piled into her van (which did have AC, luckily), and drove off towards the seaside.

The house was small and cozy and cute. Elora gushed over how quaint it was. Cam gushed over the presence of fans and air conditioning units. It also was much closer to the beach than Torwyn had made it sound, as it couldn’t have been more than a 5-minute walk down to the waterside.

“Wow!” Mina exclaimed, looking around. “It’s so nice!”

“It really is. And we’re close to the water!” Elora grinned, opening the curtains to let the sunshine in. “I can’t wait to go swimming. It’s going to be so much fun!”

Trellimar hummed in agreement from the kitchen, where Jiutou and him were putting away groceries, stocking the fridge full of the ice cream and other frozen treats they had brought with them in a cooler. The kitchen was nice as well, bigger than the kitchens they all had in their apartments.

Once they were all settled in as a group, they had to figure out sleeping arrangements. There were only three bedrooms, and the five of them. “I get a room to myself.” Mina declared, desively. “I’ll take the one with the single, since I have the car.”

“Fair enough.” Elora nodded. “Jiutou and I can take one, and then Cam and Trell can share. Great!”

“There’s only one bed though!” Cam frowned. “We can’t share a bed.”

“Sure you can.” Elora rolled her eyes. “But if you’re opposed to it, there’s always a couch or the floor.” Cam grumbled something to himself, and ignored Elora when she asked what he had said. “Either way though, let’s head down to the beach. I want to swim!” The woman smiled, then headed off to a room to change into her swimsuit, and the rest of the group dispersed as well to do the same.

 

* * *

 

The walk down to the water wasn’t bad at all, and the group walked down together, lugging umbrellas and towels and the cooler, all wearing various beachwear. Mina was wearing a bikini, not minding that it showed off her scars, and despite them, she wasn’t wearing her typical jewelry on her arm either. Elora’s swim suit was a pastel blue that went along well with her hair. Jiutou had a full piece swimsuit and she was wearing swim trunks over it, flopping along in her black flip-flops. Trellimar and Cam were both wearing trunks as well, though Trell had elected to wear a t-shirt, while Cam had not.

The waterside was nice, and the beach wasn’t too busy, despite it being the middle of summer and the fact that the sun was blazing and the heat suffocating. They had hardly picked a spot to set up their umbrellas and coolers and towels before Mina leapt onto Cam, wrestling him towards the ocean, and Elora ran after them to the water, laughing.

When Mina pushed Cam’s head below the water, and then a moment later she was falling backwards into it, the man having tripped her by grabbing her ankle, Jiutou gave Trell a funny look before heading down to go join in on the fun. Trell finished setting up some of the things and pulled a drink out of the cooler as he watched his friends.

“Trell, c’mon, don’t be a wimp! Get out here, you bastard!” Mina shouted after a while, and the man looked over and laughed at the state of his friends. Cam’s hair was dripping, long black strands of it falling into his face. Elora was splashing happily, and Jiutou wasn’t doing much but standing up to her knees in the water, but she was smiling.

“C’mon Trell!” Cam echoed, and Trellimar rolled his eyes before he stood up and pulled off his t-shirt, setting his drink aside and then walking down to the water. He hadn’t even stepped into it before Cam had leapt onto the man’s back, forcing Trell to stumble forward and fall into the water, taking Cam down along with him.

“Get off of me, you twat.” Trell said, but he was laughing as he wrestled Cam off of him and dunked the other man into the water, only to be yanked forward by Mina and Elora, then pushed farther into the water. When he stood again, he was up to his waist in the cool water, and everyone was laughing. Cam was drenched again, though all three of the girls’ upper halves were reasonably dry thanks to the sun. But salt water was dripping from Cam’s hair and was caught on his eyelashes and despite it all, Cam was smiling that stupid smile that he always had, and Trell caught himself staring for just a moment too long. Mina noticed, and with a laugh and a shared look with Elora, shoved Trell forward again, towards Cam.

It wasn’t much of a surprise that Trell fell, he was clumsy as it was, and the tide made it just all that more difficult to stay balanced. So Trell fell forward, right into Cam, and Cam fell backward and they hit the water, falling under the surface for a moment. The moment was short, but it seemed long because of the eye contact and rush in their heads from the sudden movement and the water. Regardless of length, the two of them surfaced again, Trell stumbling back off of Cam, and Cam coughing up water.

“Just get a room already, guys.” Mina teased, and Cam flipped her off, but Jiutou snorted and Elora gave the two men a knowing gaze before they clambered out of the water to get drinks and inflatables and sunscreen, leaving Trell and Cam standing awkwardly next to each other in the water as the tide pulled in and out around their waists.

When they headed back to the cottage that night, exhausted from the heat and the activity of the day, no one was all that surprised when both Cam and Trell headed to bed together, neither of them sleeping on the couch.


	9. In an Airport

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Elora has to fly out to visit her parents, and she misses her friends.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh man I'm a day behind oops. Finals... Anyway, this isn't my favorite thing I've ever written, but I'm done trying to make it better. So, fair warning that this sucks especially more than the others. Sorry.

“It’s going to be weird, not seeing you guys every day.” Elora sighed, shuffling her suitcase to the side. “It’s been really nice to hang out and talk every day. Honestly, you make my days better every time I have a bad day at work, so it’ll be different.”

“You make it sound like you’re going to be gone forever.” Trellimar sighed. “Just go get your flight. We’ll see in you a month. Have a good time visiting your parents.”

“Tell them we say hi!” Cam chimed in, and Elora rolled her eyes and smiled at her friends. \

“Alright, alright. Take care. Don’t let Cam burn the building down again, please. I want to come back to a house, and not one that smells like smoke for a week.”

“It was _one_ time!” Cam exclaimed.

“Only one time that it got bad.” Jiutou mumbled, and Elora laughed before she gave each of them a hug. Then she took her suitcase and headed off towards the flight terminal, leaving her three companions standing in the entrance of the airport.

 

* * *

 

Elora was jittery as her plane landed, the plane bouncing a few times before the turbines turned on full blast and her ears popped as the plane slowed. Unfortunately, she was sat in the back of the plane so she had to wait until everyone in front of her to get off before she could escape the claustrophobic clutches of the aircraft. She passed the time with some silly bubble popping game on her phone, and with a few texts to ensure that she was getting picked up.

When she finally managed to get out of the plane and head towards the baggage claim, Elora’s mind was wandering again. It felt like centuries since she had been home, even though it had only been a month. She had enjoyed seeing her parents, but there were only so many bad jokes from her father that she could stand. Yes, Cam had plenty of jokes that were at the same level, but it was more tolerable when she also had Jiutou and Trellimar to groan at the jokes with. She missed her apartment and her bed and her friends.

By the time she had pulled her suitcase off of the conveyer, the airport had cleared a bit, everyone having already gathered their belongings and left as soon as they feasibly could.

Other than the few people who were still milling around, there were three figures who weren’t looking at flight departures or searching for their bags. She gave no warning as she dropped her suitcase and ran forward to them, leaping and wrapping all three of them into a big hug as best she could. “Oh! I missed you guys!”

Jiutou, who was squished in the middle of the hug, shuffled and broke the hug apart so that she could step back. “We missed you too, Miss Elora.” She said, and then hugged Elora tightly. The older woman smiled at the teenager, who had never been very touchy-feely, and smiled. Cam and Trell both took their turns giving her hugs and patting her on the back and chit-chatting as they went to get Elora’s forgotten suitcase and find the car they had borrowed from Mina, so they could head back home, together once again.


	10. Dragons

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The party fights a dragon, and Crownrend stirs up trouble.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This may have spoilers for things just in background? But this is mostly me making up things that could happen in the future of the campaign.

“I think we’ve got ourselves into really big trouble this time.” Cam paled, looking at the giant beast as it emerged from the clouds. It was enormous, it’s wingspan easily four times as wide as Mina’s wagon, and though he was holding Nimbus in one hand and Duracell in the other, Cam felt as though he stood no chance.

“We’ve fought a dragon before. We can do it again.” Elora mumbled meekly before she shifted into her bear form, lilac fur sprouting over her as she turned, roaring.

“Not one like this.” Cam squeaked, and summoned his spirit weapon in the shape of the smaller dragon they had fought before, in hopes that he could intimidate the beast. It didn’t seem to do much good, as it only flew closer, looking deadly and murderous and like it wouldn’t be giving them any chance at all. Mina looked at Falk and paled, before taking the first shot and hitting the dragon with an eldritch blast, and though it hit, it didn’t seem to do much damage at all. Falk shot one of his poison spheres, hitting the beast straight in its face, and then the two of them ran back as far as they could from the monster.

Jiutou’s arm suddenly engulfed in flames as she shouted, “No! Crownrend, not now!” But the bracer seemed not to care what Jiutou wanted, and transformed. The teifling was livid, but she leapt forward anyway, taking her anger out on the dragon.

Trellimar cast hex and then hid, Granamyr cowering on his shoulder. The drow decided that he really only liked small pseudodragons. The rest of them were bastards.

Cam threw Nimbus, and it hit the dragon’s scales just to fall to the ground, disappearing in a puff of clouds and returning to Cam’s hand a second later, and then the spiritual dragon roared, glowing, and flew at the monster, clawing at its face and wings. Elora stood her ground, looking utterly terrified.

Then the dragon inhaled, its breath sounding like a huge vacuum, smoke coming from its nostrils before it let out its fiery breath, devastating the party and the landscape around them. Smoke billowed out from everywhere, as the party was attacked, burning and shouting and trying their best to hide. Elora was forced out of her wild shape, turning back into her small elven figure and running for the hills.

“We can’t do this! Get out of there!” She shouted, casting healing word on Trellimar as she ran by, grabbing his wrist and pulling him to his feet. Cam lifted himself off of the ground, his hair glowing gold, and he stumbled after them, clenching his teeth. He too, cast a healing spell, but on himself instead, his skin an angry red from the burns. Falk and Mina had managed to avoid most of the fire, but Mina looked terrified, tears running down her cheeks as Falk pushed her along.

They were halfway down the hill before they realized that Jiutou was not behind them. “Wait!” Elora gasped, out of breath and in pain. “Jiutou.” She sobbed, and the party looked back at the cliff, where the red dragon was, flapping its wings and looking pissed. Jiutou stood in front of it, looking small, fire and smoke surrounding her, but she wasn’t moving at all.

“Does she have a death wish?” Trell spat, then shouted, “For fucks sake, Jiutou, get out of there!”

“I can’t!” Jiutou’s voice rang out, sounding young and terrified, like a 16-year-old might actually sound if faced with a giant red dragon. She had never sounded like a child since they had revived her, she wasn’t a child despite looking like one, and so they all knew that something was wrong. “It’s Crownrend!” She sobbed, and Cam swore and Elora shouted, and Trellimar’s eyes widened, trying to figure out what they could do.

“Fuck it.” Cam said, chugging a healing potion before casting dimension door. “I knew that fucking bracelet was going to get her killed.” He muttered, then ran through the door, appearing in the flames beside Jiutou and hefting the tiefling over his shoulder, pulling her through the door, and then canceling the spell as they both fell down next to the rest of their party. Mina pulled Jiutou to her feet, and Trellimar pulled Cam up as well, and they bolted, Falk picking up Jiutou, as the teifling still couldn’t move.

They ran for what seemed like hours, casting spell after spell to try to get the dragon off of them, to get it to leave them alone and return to its lair. Eventually, it did, and the party collapsed, exhausted. Mina cast Leomund’s tiny hut, and they allowed themselves to set up camp.

Now safe, the party all looked at Jiutou, whose legs still wouldn’t move, and who was looking increasingly tired. “Crownrend is killing you, Jiutou.” Cam spat. “Get rid of him!”

“He’s telling me to kill you.” Jiutou snorted. “I won’t, don’t worry. I’ll try my best.”

“You need to put him back, or whatever you do with him. He’s taking all your energy.” Trell said, and Cam sighed, sitting and mediatating for a long moment as he cast a mass healing word, and Jiutou could feel some of her energy return to her, only to be stolen a moment later by Crownrend.

“Trust me, I want to.” She gasped. “But he’s not letting me. I can’t- I didn’t want to use him.”

“He’s going to kill you.” Elora said softly, frowning. “And you can’t die again, Jiutou. We can’t bring you back.”

“I know. I just want to kill that bastard who slaved me and he was going to help me but now he’s going to kill everyone who matters to me.”

“I’ll kill him.” Cam spat, taking out his dagger.

“Don’t. I’ll just die too.” Jiutou wiped her tears away with her Crownrend-free hand, and then took a deep breath. “I’ll try to reason with him.”

“Crownrend, you fuck.” Cam shouted. “Don’t kill Jiutou! She could have left you down in the underdark. You owe her.”

“She owes me.” The deep, demonic voice of Crownrend filled all of their heads. “I’ve given her so much power but she fails to use me. She fails to fight those that deserve to die. Tyrants, kings, princesses, champions. Even that dragon. They all are tyrants, and this demon child has done _nothing_. She deserves nothing. I deserve _everything_.”

“I would have died! We are going to kill the dragonborn in red and gold.” Jiutou gasped. “We will kill the Broken Sky. We have killed the Burning King. The rest are fine. But you can’t kill those without me.” Her teeth were gritted, her red eyes almost flaming as she spoke. The rest of the party was silent, and Jiutou gasped for a long moment, then her breath stopped. Suddenly, everything stopped as they thought that Jiutou had died.

A moment later though, she inhaled deeply, and Crownrend shrunk down back to his bracer form on her wrist, and she leaned back, tears running down her face. “Fucking dragons, right?” She sighed, and everyone let out a cautious chuckle, moving to help to heal Jiutou and get rest themselves.


	11. A Visit to the Emergency Room

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Modern AU. Jiutou falls, and is brought to the ER.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is basically just a quick modern rewrite of when Jiutou died/was resurrected.

They didn’t have an elevator in their apartment building, much to the annoyance of everyone, so everything had to be carried up and down the stairs, no matter how large it was. Jiutou had been lucky to have good neighbors who helped her move up all her furniture when she moved in, despite the fact that she had hardly spoken to any of them. But Elora, who lived across the way from her, refused to let her pay extra for movers or to try to bring everything up herself. While Jiutou complained, she didn’t really mean it, and she was especially thankful that they had helped her out.

Even so, Jiutou _was_ stubborn. She didn’t like asking for help, and even if something was hard, she would do it. Which is precisely why she was attempting to carry a heavy sparring dummy up the many flights of stairs to the third floor where she lived, and why she hadn’t asked for any help.

That then lead to the base of the dummy getting caught under one of the stairs. Which lead to Jiutou trying to get it free, which lead to her falling. Down and down the concrete stairs she went, the dummy landing on top of her when she reached the landing, her head hitting the floor, hard. She heard a sickening crack, and she saw the blood pooling next to her from somewhere, and then everything went dark.

* * *

 

Jiutou woke to the smell of antiseptic and the beeping of machines. Around her were her neighbors; Cam, Elora and Trellimar, and another man that she didn’t recognize at all. She felt dizzy and a little bit nauseous as she struggled to sit up. It was then that she realized she was in the hospital, and her neighbors must have called for an ambulance. Around her was the bustling chaos of the emergency room, doctors and nurses hurrying about and speaking with patients.

“Uh, what happened?” Jiutou managed, and her neighbors looked over, realizing that she was now conscious.

“Oh Jiutou!” Elora exclaimed. “Thank goodness! You fell, I think down the stairs and you were bleeding a lot. They were going to take you to do some tests or something, but it has to be a good sign if you’re awake.”

“Uh, what?” Jiutou blinked seeming confused, her head aching. “Why am I here then?”

“Well.” Cam said, looking at Jiutou with an unimpressed expression. “They couldn’t take you yet because you’re a minor. Which we didn’t know. So they have to do something or something.”

“I’m allowed to be where I am. I’m emancipated.” Jiutou reached her hand up to her head, which was wrapped in bandages. “I don’t feel so good.” She muttered, and Trellimar nodded, calling down a nurse. Jiutou’s senses went a bit fuzzy and she closed her eyes for a moment, letting herself rest as they carted her away to get patched up.


	12. Midnight Snack

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Granamyr is hungry, but Trellimar and his stupid friends are sleeping.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't know. I thought it would be cute.

Granamyr thought it was weird when Trellimar rested, or slept, or whatever. He didn’t like it very much, because the drow just sat there for hours, and then he would sleep. It was weird, and it wasn’t like how the glowing man rested, and Granamyr didn’t like it.

Especially since when Trellimar rested, it meant that he couldn’t see Granamyr, and Granamyr couldn’t talk to him. He wasn’t even bothered when the pseudodragon licked his face or tugged at his clothing. Cam, the glowing man, sometimes did wake up, but usually he just pushed Granamyr away and then went back to sleep. Granamyr much preferred to sleep on Trellimar’s shoulder during the day, but was always ready to wake up and help his master if needed. Trellimar didn’t seem to give him that courtesy back.

And _now_ Granamyr was hungry and Trellimar was in trance or sleeping or whatever, and the glowing man was snoring loudly, and the elf-woman-friend was doing the same as Trellimar. The teifling was asleep as well, and the sharp blade was too close to her for Granamyr to want to risk waking her.

Instead, he snuck out of the door, scuttling down the hall in search for a place with food so that he could find something to eat. Surely there had to be a snack for a small pseudodragon somewhere. He had already checked the bags of Trellimar and his friends, and hadn’t found anything particularly tasty.

The moonlight shown through the windows and cast shadows across the floor, and Granamyr flew across the tavern and into the kitchen, knocking over pots as he saw what he wanted. Sitting in a bowl on the counter was an assortment of fruits, and Granamyr reached his tiny claws into the bowl, snatching a grape and then a strawberry and then some other pieces of fruit. He pulled them out one by one, forming a small pile. When he was content, he settled down around the fruit, gnawing on one of the grapes, and purred happily, eating to his heart’s content and drifting off to sleep.


	13. Someone else's wedding

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Payla and Shalana's wedding.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I didn't want to write too much about the wedding because I'm really excited for when they actually do get married, so here we go.

The wedding was gorgeous, everything decorated beautifully in the colors of the autumn spire, and leaves were incorporated into nearly everything. Shalana’s dress was white, but it was tailored perfectly for her, and the way the light reflected off of it, it seemed to be red and orange and gold, especially with the decorations. Payla’s dress was form fitting, long and thin and also white, but much more practical than the queen’s puffy, flowy dress.

Elthadon and Cilandris, as the kings of the Moon and Winter spire, respectfully, stood by the altar as the two brides walked down the aisle, smiles so big and bright that anyone who saw them couldn’t help but smile as well.

Elora sat next to Nalistri, and Nalistri’s sister was on the other side of him. Torwyn was on Elora’s other side, and the children from the summer spire were farther down as well.

Behind them, sat Jiutou, Trellimar, Cam, Mina and Falk. Cam was a little annoyed that he didn’t get to sit in the front row, but Jiutou just kicked him and told him that it wasn’t _his_ wedding and he wasn’t a part of a royal family.

Cam had tried to convince Jiutou that he was, in fact, from a line of royalty descended from the Bucklands, but his companions all just snorted and ignored him.

Shalana and Payla exchanged their vows and their rings and kisses, and everyone clapped and cheered and it was generally a fantastic time. The rings were beautiful, a matching set of gold rings that were shaped like wreathes made of maple leaves.

“Have you ever thought of getting married?” Cam asked after the ceremony had ended and everyone was meandering over to the reception party. Jiutou gave him an exasperated look and sighed, and Trellimar shook his head.

“Thinking of getting married, eh, Buckland?” The drow asked, and Cam shrugged.

“I was just curious. Not a difficult question. I would have probably got married, if things had gone differently. But I don’t think I will. Maybe one day. If I live that long, right?”

“Well, I’ve been married.” Mina put in. “And it was incredible. So don’t knock it. But you don’t have to.”

Cam hummed, and Jiutou sighed again. It was then that Elora and Nalistri walked by them, Elora smiling widely. “Come on then! We have to go celebrate. But Cam, you are not allowed to get completely drunk this time, okay? And Payla can’t either. Jiutou, keep them out of trouble? And my dad, too?”

“I can do that.” Jiutou chuckled, and Elora grinned, her smile sparkling nearly as much as her dress was, and the party ran off, giddy, towards the party.


	14. Breaking and Entering

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Modern AU. Cam and Trell are up to something.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I thought about doing something more serious, but I decided on something a bit more silly. And I'm writing this a day late, so it's also Kim's birthday, so I wanted to do a little bit of birthday stuff, even if it's not Jiutou's birthday. :)

“I’m not sure this is a good idea, Trell.” Cam whispered, and Trell waved him off, assuring him it would be fine. “What if she comes home? She’ll call the cops or kill us or something. And I’m not sure I’m up for that.”

“Well if she comes home, we’ll hide, and then we’ll leave, won’t we?” Trell spat in a hushed voice. “But that won’t bloody work if you’re so damn loud, now, will it?”

“Alright, alright.” Cam replied, then sighed loudly and walked forward in the dark. “Do you have the stuff?”

“Of course I have the stuff! Who do you think I am? You?” Trell held out a plastic bag that made a crinkling sound as he swung it forward. “What would be the point if we didn’t have the stuff?”

“I wasn’t sure if this was all an elaborate plan to get rid of me. This is a really dumb idea, y’know.”

“I know it’s a bad idea, but it’ll go over well, as long as she doesn’t come home. You’re sure she works until 12?”

“I mean, yeah? She usually walks past my door around then. But her schedule could have changed, now that I think of it.”

“Shut up, Buckland. You’re not supposed to be reasonable.” Trell took something out of the bag and then pulled out tape as well, and climbed up onto the arm of the couch. “Just stop talking and come help me. Hurry. I don’t want to get caught.”

 

* * *

 

At about 12:30, Cam heard a loud pounding on his front door, and he stood sleepily, yawning as he crossed the apartment, wondering why the hell anyone could be coming to see him at such a late hour. “Buckland!” Jiutou’s voice rang out. “Did you fucking break into my apartment?”

Cam unlatched his door and yawned as he looked at the teenager standing, lividly, on his front step. “What?”

Jiutou lifted her hand to show a piece of a red streamer. “What the hell is this?”  


“Oh.” Cam blinked. “Yeah, that was us. Were you surprised?”

“Surprised that someone fucking _broke into_ my house!” Jiutou kicked Cam in the shin and crossed her arms.

“I mean, we didn’t steal anything.”

“You filled the entire place with balloons and streamers!”

“It’s your birthday! We wanted to do something fun. It wasn’t my idea either, surprisingly. Calm down, we didn’t pick the lock or anything. Elora had a spare key.”

Jiutou sighed and uncrossed her arms, looking at the ripped piece of streamer, thinking about it for a moment. “Okay, fine. Whatever. Thank you for the surprise. It definitely surprised me. Good night, Mr. Buckland.”

“Good night, Jiutou. Happy Birthday!”

“Shut up, Buckland.”

“Yeah, yeah.”


	15. Olympics

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Figure Skating/Hockey AU. Cam is jet lagged and nervous the night after he arrives for the Olympics, and finds himself at the rink at 3 AM, accompanied by three unlikely friends.

Three in the morning wasn’t the most popular time for practicing, but the rink was usually empty. So, when Cam couldn’t sleep the night he flew into the city, he grabbed his skates and headed to the rink.

He wasn’t expecting to see three other people there with the same idea as him. He nodded his head to them as he sat down on a bench and started to lace up his skates. “Couldn’t sleep?” One of them said to him, and Cam shrugged, getting a good look at the man, recognizing him. Trellimar Aleath, who was a high scoring skater, but most of his skill was in his spins and his footwork, so while he skated all of his programs nearly perfectly, they were relatively low scoring comparing to others, since he tended to avoid too many jumps. It was pretty impressive that he had made it this far, to the Olympics, but hey, Cam wasn’t one to judge. He couldn’t do any footwork without stumbling at least once, which was arguably easier than jumps.

“Back home, it’s a reasonable time.” Cam explained, and Trellimar nodded.

“You’re Cam, right? Buckland?” One of the other people said as she looked up at him, tying her skates tightly. “Congratulations to you as well! I already congratulated Trell, but it’s pretty impressive that you’ve made it this far! Super exciting.”

“I mean, you have too, clearly.” Cam said, trying to think of what female figure skaters he knew. He definitely recognized her, she was the only skater with bright lilac hair, and he knew that her programs were either completely elegant and delicate or fierce and powerful. There was no in between. She was impressive and could probably win gold this year. “You’re Galanodel then, right?” He asked as he recalled, butchering the pronunciation.

“You can just call me Elora.” The woman smiled, standing up. “Hope you don’t mind sharing the ice with me.”

“It’s no problem. I’m the last one here.” Cam shrugged as Elora skipped off towards the ice, pulling off her skate guards and leaving them on the side of the rink before she headed off on a few warm up laps. Trellimar was finishing tying up his skates as well, and Cam was working on his, but found himself curious about the fourth person who was aggressively tightening her skates in the corner. She hadn’t said anything yet, and Cam _really_ couldn’t think of who she was. He didn’t follow the women’s figure skating too closely, but he thought he had watched enough to at least recognize each skater, even if he didn’t remember their names.

“Uh, sorry, not to be rude, but uh, hi. I’m Cam.” He said awkwardly, and the woman looked up, looking a bit annoyed. “You are?”

“Jiutou Zhiji Jing.” She seemed fairly annoyed that Cam didn’t know, and he frowned, because he really didn’t recognize the name and he wasn’t _that_ clueless or forgetful. “I play center.”

“Oh.” Cam glanced down at the woman’s skates and felt dumb. It made a lot more sense that he didn’t know her, she was a hockey player. He enjoyed hockey from time to time, but not enough to pay attention to the individual players, and it was usually just hanging out with friends and pints of beer, so no one really paid that much attention to it. “Yeah! That’s right. Duh.”

“You didn’t know. That’s fine. I didn’t know who you were either. Lots of athletes here, far too many to know everybody.”

“Sorry.” Cam said, and Jiutou shrugged, yanking her laces once more before tying them, pulling on gloves and picking up the discarded stick and puck that Cam couldn’t believe he hadn’t noticed before. She stomped towards the ice and hoped on, skating around the ice quickly along with Elora and Trellimar. Cam sighed, standing and heading onto the ice as well, putting his earphones in and letting himself get immersed in his program. He skated around the other three skaters on the ice with ease despite the fact that both Elora and Trell were skating their own programs, and they all needed the ice space, and throughout it all, Jiutou was smacking the puck into the boards violently, skating quickly through the figure skaters as though they were an opposing team, skirting the puck away from them gracefully before smacking it into the walls.

It was strange, the way they were able to skate in unison, despite the variety in skating styles and the differences in all of their programs, and the fact that Jiutou was playing an entirely different sport, but it was good. Cam liked it, and it was a much more enjoyable way to spend a 3 AM practice than anything else he could have imagined.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not sure if this is actually allowed, and from experience, someone would have been hit with a puck or ran into, but we can pretend.


	16. Waking up in a foreign city

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The party wakes up in a strange place with no clue about how they got there

They ended up in new places all the time. They were travelers, after all. Adventurers going on quests throughout all of Arrak, and that meant that they ended up in random villages and cities on a regular basis.

The thing about that though, was that they usually remembered getting to the city. (Cam often didn’t, because he got drunk, but neither Trellimar nor Jiutou drank, so usually one person would remember at the very least.) On the odd occasion that none of them remembered getting to the city, then one of them could usually sort out where they were.

But this time, none of them had a clue. They also didn’t wake up in an inn or a tavern, but rather in the center of what seemed to be the town square.

“What in the world did we get up to last night?” Cam asked groggily as he opened his eyes, stretching out his stiff back and realizing that he was on a stage of some sort. It was just a wooden platform in the middle of the square. No one else was around, or no one that he could see at the moment, with the exception of his companions, who were sprawled out on the stage as well.

It was then that Cam realized that though he could move his limbs enough to stretch, that he was tied to the stage by a thick, heavy rope that connected to shackles around his ankles. The same applied to his companions, who were all waking up in various states of confusion and annoyance.

He checked around for his daggers, finding all of them gone except for one that was conveniently on his hip, as always. Thank goodness for magical daggers, right? Elora gave him a look and then lifted a finger to her lips, telling him to keep quiet. He nodded, and set to work on sawing at his ropes, before scrambling across the stage to free Elora, and then Trell and Jiutou as well.

“So… Where are we?” Trell asked, and Elora shrugged, and Cam made a face. Jiutou looked conflicted, but didn’t say anything as she looked around with a frown. “Alright. Good,” The drow said and then sighed.

“I think we should figure out where everyone is. Someone put us here and tied us up.” Elora frowned.

“Is that really a good idea?” Cam asked, his voice slightly high-pitched, and his expression made it seem like he really didn’t think it was. “Because if someone tied us up and took our stuff, they probably didn’t want us to leave, did they?”

“We should find our weapons,” Jiutou said, the first thing she had said since had woken up. No one was really sure if she had been speaking with Crownrend or not, but the tone of her voice made her seem especially serious, and she seemed almost worried. “And leave this place as soon as possible.”

“Wait, you do know where we are?”

“I’m not exactly sure what city, but I believe we are in Bresaris.”

“Woah.” Cam frowned. “That’s like, the dragonborn crazy land, right?”

“Not all dragonborn are bad,” Jiutou said, but with a bit of hesitation. “We know Korak is good.”

“Jiutou, are you going to be okay? This has to be hard, being here, considering-” Elora started, and Jiutou cut her off with a cold look.

“I am _fine_. Let’s find our belongings and get back to Arrak.” Jiutou spat, standing. “And hurry, before some slaver or someone comes.”

“Yeah, we should go. If Jiutou’s scared, then I’m definitely scared.” Cam squeaked, scrambling after the teifling girl, into the unknown city.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't know


	17. Drinking in a mediocre restaurant bar

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mina is alone, and she drinks to forget.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one is pretty sad, and very short. Sorry.

Mina spent far too many nights drinking alone, which would have sounded sad, except she didn’t care. Sometimes she just had to drink, and she could hold her liquor enough that she was able to get home alright most nights. But sometimes it was easier to fall asleep, alone, in her wagon, where she had once lived with her family, if she was completely wasted.

She hadn’t gone out and got completely drunk for a long time, not since the last time she had drunk alongside Cam and Payla, and that seemed like so long ago. But she had been fine, kept busy by helping out Barris on her mission. Barris and the guards were good company, and they were so focused on the mission that Mina hardly had time to think back on what she had lost.

But they had stopped for a while, since the guards had been called back to Talis’Val, and she was left in a small city on her own. They were supposed to be back in two weeks, but it seemed lonelier than ever. Even the things that usually cheered her up weren’t.

So, Mina found herself in a very familiar situation, sitting alone at the bar of some cheap restaurant in the middle of the city. She people-watched and drank until her thoughts were muddled and it didn’t hurt anymore.


	18. Making food

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cooking has brought the party together

It was no secret to the party that Jiutou was a good cook. She mentioned it fairly often and was usually the one to whip something up when they were camping. Yes, she did complain about not having the ingredients she wanted to make things like noodles and other traditional meals, but she worked wonders with the things they did have. Cam had never thought that anything made from rations and the smallest amount of foraged foods would ever possibly be tasty, but Jiutou did a good job.

Jiutou also thoroughly enjoyed cooking. She had cooked with her parents when she was younger, before the tragedy, and there was something about it that relaxed her and was good. It was also a lot of fun when she cooked with her friends as well.

Elora tended to go out into the woods and come back with a bag full of wild greens and vegetables and other foraged goods. Trellimar usually just lurked, chopping things when Jiutou asked, and sneaking slices of food to Granamyr. Cam got in the way, sticking his face in front of Jiutou and getting in her way when he was trying to see what she was doing.

They laughed and worked together despite it all though, and somehow managed to work with the strangest set ups, whether they had borrowed a kitchen in a tavern, or if they were cooking over an open fire from a camp they had set up inside a cave.

They cooked and joked and had a great time, and it became a routine thing for them to do, all four of them cooking together each night.

The food and the banter was a good respite from the taxes of their adventures and all of the stress of the problems they dealt with throughout their days. It was good, and normal, and even though none of them would admit it, it was the thing that each of them looked forward to every night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm behind so these are kind of short, oops.


	19. Spies

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The party is on a mission to spy on the Broken Sky.

Elora was glad that she had cast pass without a trace before they had snuck into the building, because Cam had already come far too close to tripping and making a ton of noise. Honestly, with the amount of bumbling about the man did, she had no idea how they had managed to get this far. She didn’t often give herself all the credit, but in this case, she thought that she deserved it. Quietly, she looked around for her companions. Cam was trying to be sneaky, but if it weren’t for the spell, she knew that he would have given their hiding spot away already. Trellimar was ducked quietly behind a post, Granamyr sitting silently on his shoulders. Jiutou was—well, Elora had no idea where Jiutou was, but it meant that she wasn’t getting them caught, so she didn’t really care. The teifling had to be around somewhere.

She waved the group forward and glided across the marble flooring without a sound, tucking herself behind a wall. A second later, Trellimar slid in beside her. Cam tripped on seemingly nothing on his way over, but no one noticed, probably because the people they were there to spy on were talking. Cam had gotten lucky. _Again_.

“If we wait any longer, Talis’Val will have gathered a larger army. If we move now, we have the advantage with the size of our army. Then our reinforcements can come in while they’re weak,” Said one of the figures, his voice deep and gruff. “If we don’t move now, it won’t be as easy of a fight. We’ll lose more people.”

“I could care less about the people,” The other responded. “They are just pawns. Once we take the city, we’ll have all the people that we could ever need. The Princess is unstoppable. We will take the city either way, and I’d rather watch more of their army die. The dragons will arrive in two days.”

“Fine. We will wait only that long. Our army marches at dawn in two days.”

Elora glanced over to Trellimar, who frowned. “ _I think we ought to hurry and warn Korak.”_ Trell’s voice sounded from inside Elora’s head, and the elven woman nodded.   _“No use in risking ourselves in a battle here.”_

Elora nodded and looked at both her companions that she could see, twirling her finger around and pointing back in the direction that they had come. Trellimar knew the plan, obviously, but Cam looked confused for a moment. Trellimar must have spoken into his head as well, because the human played out a dramatic sigh silently before he nodded, and turned to follow Trell and Elora back out silently.

As soon as they were outside of the mansion, they started to run, Jiutou reappearing as she cancelled the spell of invisibility that she had cast with her lute. Their mission had been a success, they had gotten the information that they had needed. Now if only they could warn Korak soon enough, and if only they could figure out a way to prepare.

A huge army, and dragons. Two days. Surely, they could do something. At least they had this warning, and at least they hadn’t been caught.


	20. Present Shopping

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Trell's friends gave him gifts, so he has to go try to find something for all of them as well.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is set in the modern AU where they all live in an apartment complex.

If asked to list all the things that he disliked, Trell wouldn’t have thought to put shopping onto the list. It just wasn’t one of those things that came up that often that he absolutely hated. Grocery shopping was one thing, and he didn’t mind that so much, even though it could be tedious and he hated watching how much money he was spending. But gift shopping? Gift shopping should have made it onto that list, if only he hadn’t forgotten how much he abhorred the task. 

It was one thing that he had to spend more money than he would like, and a whole other thing that the stores were the absolute worst. Crowded and playing cheesy, annoying, repetitive music that was meant to be festive. Ugh. And to round everything off, he of course had to actually decide on what to get people. If he couldn’t pick out something nice, then they’d probably think that he didn’t care. 

In all hindsight, he could just opt out of the gift giving, just not give anything to any of his family or friends, and it would probably be okay. Cam would complain, but no one else would say anything. He wasn’t even speaking with his family, so that didn’t matter either. It was mostly just his own guilt that was forcing him to go out and face the horrible shopping center just so he could buy his friends and neighbors gifts.

If only Elora wasn’t so peppy about everything. But she was, and she had dropped off a gift, wrapped neatly and topped with a red and gold bow that Granamyr had batted off of the gift and taken off to hide somewhere in Trell’s apartment. Probably under his bed. And Jiutou had come over with a gift as well, which had been wrapped at the store, and was sitting on his kitchen table, right next to Elora’s gift. Even Cam had dumped off a gift, wrapped in obnoxious paper and not done very well. Nevertheless, it had ended up on the table as well. So had the gift from Shalana and Payla. And the one from Mina. The one from Falk too. 

And with a table full of gifts, Trell couldn’t very well just not get anything for them in return. Since he had no idea what to get, he hadn’t gotten very far with the internet, and nothing would have gotten there on time. So instead he was at the mall, with about every other living person in the entire city. It was a bit ridiculous, honestly. Why couldn’t everyone else have done their shopping earlier? It would have made Trell’s life a lot easier. But that was being hypocritical, he knew that. So instead he sighed and fought through the crowds and tried to find things that his friends would like. 

What would they like though? Ugh. He should have just opened the gifts from his friends, and then maybe that would have given him some sort of clue as to what to get them in return. But he hadn’t, so here he was, stuck in the mall with no ideas.

It wasn’t until he walked past a kitchen store that he realized maybe he could figure something out. Jiutou didn’t have a good set of bowls. She complained about it all the time. Easy. And Cam drank enough coffee to fuel an army, and some of the mugs here had ridiculous quotes that Trell knew the man would like. So he got that too. 

In the next store, he found a cheap princess tiara that he thought Elora would laugh at, and then he also got her a stuffed bear and a pair of earrings. And then it was easy, even though it was tedious, to find little snarky trinkets for the rest of his friends and to get something nice for Shalana and Payla.

When he left the mall, carrying far too many bags from far too many stores, it was dark, and he was exhausted, but he made it home and felt good that he had actually managed to get things for each of his friends.

Too bad he still had to wrap them all. 


	21. Playing Dress-up

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Playing dress-up in the backyard

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is heavily inspired by [Squirrel Curls' Kid Rollers AU](http://squirrelcurls.tumblr.com/tagged/Kid-Rollers-AU) you should check her art and stuff out because she's amazing. :)

“Tag, you’re it!” The boy shouted as he pushed forward with both of his hands onto Matt’s back, and the boy stumbled forward, falling on his face and scratching his knees. He started to cry before he sniffled and wiped his tears away. He wasn’t Matt, he was Trellimar, and Trellimar would never cry, no matter how often he fell.

“Hey, be nice to Trell, Cam!” One of the girls said, puffing up her chest. “Don’t make me become a bear and beat you up!”

“Ahh, don’t do that, Elora!” He shouted, running away as Kim waddled over to Matt in her Jiutou onesie, reaching down her hand to lift him up. He stood up and wiped the dirt off of his knees, which were scraped, but not bleeding, and then checked on his stuffed dragon, Granamyr.

“You’re going to be okay.” Kim said, looking the boy up and down decisively, and he smiled back at her, sniffling.

“Thanks, Jiutou.”

She nodded at him and ran back over towards Katie, who was trying to find all the pieces of her bear costume from inside their big box. “Do you see Crownrend in there?” Kim whispered loudly, and the other girl nodded and handed over the clunky cardboard bracelet. Mark had promised to make something nicer when he had time, but Kim liked Crownrend like he was.

“Tag is supposed to be nice, Mr. Human!” Kim said, hands on her hips, puffing up her cheeks.

“Now you’re going to be in trouble!” Katie echoed, and the two girls took their ‘weapons’ and started chasing after Trott while Matt gathered up all of his eldritch blast balls.

“Hey, it’s going to rain, come on inside.” A loud voice called from the doorway, and the four children looked over towards Mark, their babysitter, with a frown.

“Awh, it’s okay! We can play in the rain! Can’t we?”

“Sorry. You don’t want to ruin all your stuff anyway. Bring it all inside, and maybe we can play some more of the story before your parents come pick you up, yeah?” Mark said, and the four children grinned before tossing all the spare items into their box and lugging it towards the house with excitement, costumes still half on, as the rain started to fall.

 

 


	22. Vampires

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cam meets a vampire in the middle of the night.

Cam didn’t really understand why the world hated him. Because it apparently did. He had spent the last few nights in the slums of the city, fighting off criminals and helping people get back home safely. He wasn’t even being paid for it either, it was out of the goodness of his own heart.

So, he really didn’t understand how he had managed to get himself into this situation. He didn’t deserve it! He was a good guy.

But the pale, thin, strong figure that emerged from the shadows didn’t really care about that. He wished that they would have.

“You like to help people, is that it?” Their voice was calming and slow, and they reached a cold hand out to touch Cam’s hair. “Think you could do me a favor?”

“I have to- Uh.” Cam’s thoughts were getting fuzzy, he didn’t really understand what he was going to do or why he was in a shady alley in the first place. Who was this person? He didn’t know them, but he did trust them, for some reason. Maybe it was their dark eyes, maybe it was their voice. But suddenly, Cam forgot that he was nervous, and he nodded. “Sure.”

“Good.” The figure flashed a fanged grin at the human man. “I was getting hungry.”

“Sure,” Cam hummed, and he smiled as the figure pushed his long hair aside and ran their fingers down the side of his neck. “Of course,” He chuckled, stumbling slightly, as if he was drunk. But he hadn’t drunk anything that night or for the past week, even.

It didn’t even hurt when the fangs were pressed into Cam’s pale skin, and the man wasn’t in pain as his blood was taken by the vampire. Eventually though, his vision faded, clouding to blackness, and his legs gave out. The last thing he saw was the vampire lowering him to the ground, a bloodstained grin on their face. “Thanks. Sorry it had to end like this.”

As Cam fell into unconsciousness, no longer having enough blood pumping through his veins to keep him up. His breath slowed, and the vampire looked down on him, getting ready to leave.

It was as they turned around, heading down the dark alley that they noticed the soft glow that started to appear. They turned again, worried that someone had come down the alley with a torch, and would find the body that they had left behind. Instead, they saw Cam’s hair glowing, and a moment later, open his eyes.

They made eye contact, and Cam frowned at the figure. “You killed me,” He said, shaking his head and struggling to stand. “What the hell?” Even though he had been revived thanks to his heritage, his body hadn’t completely recovered, and he was still weak on his feet, unable to stand quickly or to follow.

The vampire just stared for a moment longer before turning and bolting down the alley, disappearing into the night.


	23. Roadside Diners

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Roadside diners are strange places in the middle of the night

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This stems from my love of eating pancakes at diners at 2am and also from writing at odd hours of the morning

It was places like this that people only really found when they had been driving across the country for hours on end. A small, 24-hour diner that was tucked back in the middle of nowhere, lit by only a dim street light. It was the sort of place that probably only had local regulars and people like them, who had stumbled across it in the middle of the night.

Diners like this one were strange places, the lights barely bright enough to see the menus, the lone waitress walking around with a coffee cup that she was drinking from in one hand, the coffee pot in the other. A tired man sitting alone in a booth, drinking coffee and looking tired, feeding bits of food down to a small animal beside him. A younger girl, maybe a runaway, who was sitting in the corner, wary, but sleepy, eating what she could. A man who chatted a bit too loudly with the waitress, who was drinking his fourth cup of coffee that night, his voice and laughter filling the otherwise silent diner. A woman who sat in a chair at a table in the middle of the diner, picking at pancakes and watching the other patrons carefully.

It was places like this that people somehow crossed paths. It was only in places like this, at two in the morning, the sky dark and the air cold, that four strangers may have discovered they were all headed in the same direction.

It was places like this that people found their lives suddenly changed over cups of coffee and greasy food. That they found themselves no longer sitting alone, the woman moving over to sit next to the man in the booth, petting the small cat that he had brought with him. The loud man looking over, curious, and moving over as well, introducing himself and laughing, and beckoning the girl over as well. The waitress smiling as she poured more coffee for the four of them as they traded stories and tales of places they had been and places they were going.

It was places like this that brought them together.


	24. Late at night, no one else awake

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jiutou takes them out late at night

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i just really love stargazing

The streets were silent as they walked down it, quietly laughing at some stupid joke that Cam had made. It was bitter cold out, and despite the fact that they had bundled up, it didn’t seem to do enough to combat the snow and the cold from the midnight air. At least it wasn’t currently snowing, even if they had to trudge through the snowbanks left on the street because it was far too late for the snowplows to be running. The houses that they passed as they walked were dark, everyone in them asleep and silent. Even the forest was still and quiet; the animals that usually lurked in the night opting to stay in their dens to avoid the snow.

Elora tugged tighter on her scarf, and Cam folded his gloved hands close to himself, shoving them under his armpits in hopes to keep warmer. Trell laughed at them, but he too, stumbled in the snow, and it didn’t really seem like his coat was quite warm enough for this.

Jiutou was cold as well, but she didn’t let it bother here, just continuing to trudge past the houses towards the park, where they going.

“You know,” Elora said, realizing something. “We’re not allowed in the park past dusk.”

“No one is awake, it doesn’t matter,” Cam said. “And we’ve already left, and I’m not freezing my ass off for nothing.” He shot a glance over towards Jiutou. “What are we doing, again, Jiutou?”

“Just wait, Cam.” Jiutou hummed. “You’ll see soon.”

Cam rolled his eyes and rubbed his arms. The four of them continued on, climbing over a tall snowbank left from the last time the plows had come through. It didn’t matter that much that Trell had stumbled a bit and that one of his boots was now filled with snow, because they had made it to the park, working their way the best they could in the dark. There were no lights here, other than the moonlight, and the trees cast long shadows over everything.

“It’s kind of creepy here, Jiutou,” Cam whispered. “And yeah, you know, Elora’s right. We’re _not_ supposed to be here right now, maybe we can just go-”

“Cam, shut up.” Jiutou glared at him, and he frowned, but shut his mouth. “Just shut up and look at the sky.”

They all looked up. It was a shockingly clear night, and they were away from all of the street lights and houses and it was just silent, dark, and beautiful.

The stars spanned back farther than they had ever seen, and the detail in the night sky was so intense that it was impossible to take it all in. They stood there, in the cold, in the dark, in the silence. It was as though the world was no longer real, as if everything they knew was gone. There was no one else around, it was just the four of them and the endless galaxy of the night sky.


	25. Going home for Christmas

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The party split up to head home for the Frost Gala

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is very late, but it's finished! Here we go. :)

“Well, uh.” Cam looked at his group of companions, shuffling his bag from one shoulder to the other and sighing. “We’re meeting back here in Talis’Val mid-January, right?”

Elora nodded and smiled weakly. “Yes. Then we’ll go onto our next thing. It’s just, you know, after all the chaos, I kind of just want to visit home for a bit.” Cam figured he ought to find the Bucklands as well, and speak with his mother, at the very least. Besides, he hadn’t heard any news of Amelia since he had left her with Cune back in Tallfield, and that had been months ago. He knew that he should probably should check up on her as well, even if she hated him.

Even so, looking over at Jiutou, who they all knew had no family, and at Trellimar, whose family was a mystery, Cam couldn’t help but feel sad. But Elora was right, they needed to go and take a break from their adventuring for just a little bit, even if it was just for the holiday.

Jiutou’s face didn’t give any indication of how she was feeling, but Trellimar looked a bit glum as well, paying more attention to Granamyr then any of them.

“So, I’ll see all of you back here soon,” Elora said, and then pointed an accusing finger at all of them. “And if any of you don’t come back, I’m going to assume you’re in trouble and spend as long as I need to spend trying to find you. Don’t just disappear.”

“We can lose the human though, right?” Jiutou said, and then cracked the faintest of smiles, and Cam let out a weak laugh. There was a long pause before Jiutou said quietly, “I don’t mean it, Mr. Buckland.”

“Right,” Cam said dismissively, then waved his hand at Elora. “You need to get going so you actually make it to the moon spire.”

“Yes, I know.” The elven woman sighed. “I’ll see you all soon, okay? Take care of yourselves!” She then proceeded to give her friends all tight hugs, before giving them one last look and a big smile. When she turned to leave, it was with a bit of hesitation and a frown, but she did head out towards the hired cart that was waiting for her.

As Elora headed out of the city, Cam waved his hand and then looked at Jiutou and Trellimar. “Don’t die. Either of you. I know what you’re like.”

“I’ll do my best, Mr. Buckland,” Jiutou said.

“Yeah, well, I’ll do my bloody best, but I’ll have a lot better of a chance when I’m not around you lot.” Trellimar shook his head. “No one wants to burn me to death.”

“Watch out for your space aliens though,” Cam looked pointedly at Trell’s bag, where he knew the mask was. “And Jiutou,” He said as he turned to the teifling girl. “Don’t let Crownrend eat you, or whatever.”

“He says to shut up.”

“Great! Great. Okay, yeah. I’m going. Bye.” Cam stuttered, taking a step back. “Take care. Bye.” The human now took his leave as well, leaving Trellimar and Jiutou alone.

Jiutou took one look at Trellimar before saying quickly. “I’m not good at goodbyes, Mr. Aleath, so forgive me. But I should be going.” She quickly dipped her head before scurrying off towards the center of the city. Trell, now alone, sighed. He scratched the back of Granamyr’s neck, and began to wonder off towards Whisper’s Walk, in hope of finding something to do for nearly a month on his own.

 

* * *

 

Cam kicked a rock across the cobblestone road as he reentered the capitol city, lugging his heavy pack and wondering why he had been so dumb. He didn’t know what he expected, coming back to the city so shortly after he had left it. There wasn’t anyone to come back to. They were planning on coming back nearly a month from now, so he wasn’t going to let himself get his hopes up. But maybe- just maybe, someone would return early.

It wasn’t until he heard a very familiar voice call out, “Cam?” And then louder, “Cam? Is that you!” And he turned to see a very familiar head of lilac hair running towards him. The smile on Elora’s face was huge, and it grew even wider when a small purple dragon flew towards them, landing on Elora’s shoulder. Trellimar was a few paces behind Granamyr, approaching his companions with a grin. A moment later, Jiutou appeared from the crowd, looking confused.

“What are you all doing here?”

“What are you doing here?” Elora exclaimed. “I thought you were having staying with Korak!” She said to Jiutou. “And Cam, you were supposed to be with the Bucklands!”

“Well, Elora, you did say you were going home,” Trell said.

“Well, uh.” Elora’s cheeks warmed and she looked down for a moment. “The more I thought about it, on the cart back towards the moon spire, well. It doesn’t really feel like home. It’s not really home, not without all of you.”

Cam nodded. “Yeah, I mean, the Bucklands raised me and everything, but, uh. I think if you have to go home for the holidays, I think you should be with the people who are the most important to you.”

“Oh, don’t be all sappy.” Trellimar said, scrunching his nose.

“Are you saying that we’re important to you, Cam?” Jiutou asked, and Cam rolled his eyes.

“Maybe. Is there something wrong with that?”

“No.” Jiutou hummed. “I was thinking the same thing, actually.”

“You guys _are_ important to me. That’s why I came running back.” Elora said with a smile. “I’m sure we can ask Korak if we can stay in the government district. Then we can be together. Really be home for the holidays.”

“Yeah,” Trell agreed, smiling. “Sounds like a fantastic plan.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, goodness. This took forever for me to finish, but I did finally get it done. Thank you all for reading this! It's been a joy, and thanks to three and leon for coming up with the prompts as well! It's been a joy and I'm glad that I was able to do this, even if it took me a month and a half to finish all the prompts. Now I'll move onto different, longer projects, rather than one-shots. Take care of yourselves and yeah, thanks! <3

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! As always, you can find me over at [chat-miaou.tumblr.com](http://chat-miaou.tumblr.com)


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